Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment

A framework for integrated learning based on food and food production.

With a global food crisis, rising environmental concerns, and America’s children facing epidemic levels of diet-related diseases, how can educators positively engage students in understanding the connections among these topics?

Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment, written by the Center for Ecoliteracy with a foreword by bestselling author Michael Pollan, provides a conceptual framework for integrated learning in these important areas in K–12 classrooms.

Big Ideas offers:

Key concepts drawn from the American Association for the Advancement of Science Benchmarks for Science Literacy

Essential questions to engage students

A rich assortment of sample activities

In a style that is both positive and accessible, Big Ideas helps students and educators explore questions, such as: Where does our food come from and how it is produced? How does culture shape our food choices and behavior? What is the relationship between food choices and health? And what are the links between our food and the environment?